Dry County
by amritacafe
Summary: Ruby Rose's new town has a lot to offer. Pretty girls, a new school, a new sport...and some secrets she's better off not knowing. Set in the same universe as "Red Georgia Clay"
1. Allez!

"I'm just glad we had the summer to settle in before Ruby starts school," Blake was saying. "I was worried you wouldn't be able to find a job to pay tuition."

"Oh ye of little faith," Yang said with a smile. "You underestimate my power. So now I'm employed, Ruby's registered for school—Ruby?" She turned around to look in the backseat, where Ruby kept the company of several grocery store plastic bags. But Ruby's face was glued to the window. At the entrance to the Walmart supercenter, there was a massive SUV gleaming white in the Georgia sun. A man got out of the passenger's side door and walked around to the backseat, opening the door, and a princess stepped out.

Ruby blinked. Okay, maybe not a _real_ princess, but with her creamy pale skin, long white hair, white sundress—she was just really white. But not in the lifeless corpse way. She was white like whole milk, or vanilla ice cream. Ruby had never really seen a huge number of white people in the Bay Area. Most of her classmates were at least part Asian like her, or Latino. But here was a white person. A really white person. A surprisingly attractive really white person. The princess checked a silver watch hanging off her wrist and walked into the store.

"Earth to Ruby? What are you looking at?" Ruby's head whipped around, and a little drool hit Yang in the face. "Hey, what the fuck? You didn't have to spit on me." But Ruby couldn't hear. This was a small town. Somehow, she'd see that girl again.

* * *

"Class, meet Ms. Ruby Rose. She is a freshman who just moved here from San Bernardino, California." The teacher, a lobster-complected man named Mr. Jarvis, gestured broadly to the classroom, arm flab jiggling cheerfully, and beamed at Ruby.

"Wow, talk about bad taste," muttered someone in the back of the room, to general titters. Ruby looked out. There were more black people in this room than she'd ever met out in the Bay Area, a lot of spotty white kids, and a few people who were genuinely beautiful. Everyone's clothing put hers to shame. The private school style, she supposed.

"Ruby's schedule is as follows." Mr. Jarvis read off Ruby's classes. "Whose schedule is closest to this? Weiss?" Ruby looked out and saw the student the teacher had named. It was _her_. The princess. She looked a tad stricken, all things considered.

"Yes, ma'am." A voice to match the angels.

"Please accompany Ms. Rose to her classes for the day. Welcome her to our academy with full Beacon pride. Now, for today's lesson, please take out a sheet of notebook paper..." Ruby took a seat next to Weiss and dropped her Swiss Army backpack on the ground, producing the supplies Mr. Jarvis asked for.

"Hey, Weiss. I'm Ruby," she whispered. Weiss ignored her. She paused and took notes. Something about Ponce de Leon? "Hey!"

"I am trying to pay attention," Weiss said out of the side of her mouth. Ruby kept her silence after that until the bell rang to announce the next period. Then she shoved her spiral notebook back into her bag and a steady stream of verbiage came out of her mouth, seemingly without her control.

"Hi! I'm Ruby. What's it like here? I just arrived so I'm kinda nervous. What do people do for fun? Does it rain often? Does it snow here? I've never actually been to the East Coast before, it was such a long drive even though to be honest I slept through most of it and—"

"Ruby!" Weiss said. "Listen. I know you're a freshman, and I know you're pretty smart if you're in sophomore level classes. I know I was told to show you around. But that only means that you're going to follow me around until your big, fifteen-year old brain figures out the way. So stop talking to me about your life. I. Don't. Care." They made it to the next class—Algebra Two with Mrs. Freeman. "Now, please, shut up and let me attend _the classes I am here for_ in peace." The floor tiles were white, speckled with blue and green flecks of some sort of paint. Ruby's black flats and tights loomed in her vision. She went to her desk.

It wasn't until the last bell rang that Ruby realized that this school wouldn't have buses. It was a private school, and Yang wouldn't get off of work until six o'clock...in three hours. She was fucked.

"Hey, Weiss?" she asked, following her out of the classroom. Weiss turned to her in aggravation.

"What?" she asked. "What could you possibly want from me at the end of the school day?" Weiss folded her arms, a sure sign that she didn't want to be listening even if she technically was by dint of having ears.

"Is there somewhere I can go for a while? I won't be able to get home for a few hours at least so I'm kind of stuck here." Weiss closed her eyes, appealing to higher powers for patience.

"Yes. I've got to stop by my locker first," Weiss said, and lead Ruby up a few flights of stairs until she reached it. Weiss had a bottom locker, which Ruby was surprised by despite herself, and from it Weiss produced a long sports bag. Weiss hadn't struck Ruby as an athletic type, but she supposed there was a first for everything. "Come on, let's go to the gym. Fencing practice starts in five."

"Fencing? What's fencing?" Weiss rolled her eyes.

"Just come on, you dolt." Ruby scurried after Weiss' back and into a locker room, where Weiss mechanically stripped. No one else was in the locker room, so it looked like Weiss was late. Ruby caught herself staring at Weiss thighs and turned to read the numbers off of the lockers behind her. Weiss set off for the gym without her, and Ruby barely squeezed her way through the door before it closed.

A bunch of people in the same white clothes as Weiss were sitting in a circle around someone standing up. A dark brown guy with light eyes and an easy smile, he looked up at the two girls and gestured to the circle.

"Hey, Weiss. And you, too, newcomer. Take a seat, we're just getting started." He turned to the assembled students. "Look, I know last year was rough. It was hard on all of us when Winter graduated, and I'll be the first to say that filling her shoes as Captain was a challenge I wasn't quite ready for. But this year, we're older and wiser. Weiss, the best of our freshmen from last year, is now all grown up and ready to lead JV. And this year we're hungry. So let's get to practice!" A few people cheered and split up into pairs, leaving the captain, Weiss, and Ruby, who was looking around the room.

"Wait, fencing is the sword thing? I know how to do that!" Ruby couldn't resist a few excited hops into the air.

"Oh, really?" asked the captain, with interest.

"Don't listen to her, Sage," Weiss said. "She's new here." Sage raised an eyebrow.

"So were you, once. If this girl says she knows how to fence, let's have her fence. What do you use, friend?" He extended a hand to shake, and Ruby pumped it fiercely.

"My name's Ruby!" Ruby said. "And I learned with epeé." Weiss's mouth fell open. "Do I need one of your white...uh... outfits?"

"Yeah, go get one of Weiss's spares," Sage said. "When you get back, Weiss will practice with you." He looked at Weiss as if to say, "See? What did I tell you about being nice to strangers?"

Ruby went to the locker room and grabbed one of Weiss uniforms. It was crisp and smelled freshly laundered, but the slight scent of leftover sweat and what was probably Weiss's perfume lingered. It was delicious, but Ruby forced herself to focus, pushing down the weird thoughts she kept having about Weiss. She took an epeé from the bottom of Weiss' bag and ran back into the practice room. Putting on a mask, she turned to face Weiss. Sage nodded.

"Start whenever you two are ready. Or...I guess... _en garde..prêt...allez_!" Weiss lunged immediately. Ruby retreated and went back to en garde. Weiss advanced slowly, on the attack again. Every time she attacked, Ruby either backed away or parried, but didn't go on the attack. Then she looked down at her epeé, switched it into her left hand, and lunged.

Everything changed. People stopped practicing to watch Ruby and Weiss, gathering around to watch their exchanges. Sage began to smile, watching Ruby go from stiff to loose and dart in towards Weiss again and again, pressing her back until making one final step and lunge. She missed by a hair, Weiss' epeé beating hers away and scoring a touch. They both tore off their helmets as soon as Weiss scored. Ruby's hair was plastered to her head, and she pushed it back from her forehead, her grin alive with a wickedness she shared with her teacher.

"Again?" she asked. Weiss nodded, and they put their helmets back on. Sage watched them line up, then clapped twice to get the spectators' attention.

"Show's over!" he said to the other students. "Go back to practicing!"

After the practice was over and everyone had hit the showers, Sage was waiting for Weiss in the hallway outside the girls' locker room. She tried to get past him, but he advanced on her anyway, smiling like the devil.

"So. Your _new best friend_ is on the team now, right?" Weiss closed her eyes. The team needed Ruby. She sure as hell didn't, but the team did. Winter would never forgive her if Weiss didn't lead the team to victory this year.

"Sure," she sighed just as Ruby came out, hair still wet from her shower. "Ruby...hi. Let's go to the front of the school. I have a car waiting for me." Ruby scurried behind her, quickly returning Sage's cheery wave before catching up to Weiss.

"Hey, Yang is probably still at work," she began, but Weiss waved a hand at her.

"Don't worry," Weiss said. "I'll drive you home." They passed a display case full of trophies, gleaming behind glass. Winter was responsible for every little golden fencer in that case. And Weiss wanted some for herself. "You'll be joining the fencing team, right? I don't want to like...pressure you, but JV could really use your talent, and if you practice more you could easily be varsity by the end of the year. Besides, I can guarantee rides home, as much as you need them." By the time she stopped talking, Weiss knew by Ruby's smile that she'd promised too much.

"Seems fun! Plus, if you give me rides home, I won't have to worry about Yang getting off work in time. What days do you stay after school?" She pushed the double doors at the entrance of the school open for Weiss, who had stopped in front of them and waited.

"All of them," Weiss said. The white Escalade from the grocery store was parked outside, and they climbed in the backseat, Weiss first and Ruby second. A black cat sitting in the bushes by the entrance got up, and Ruby almost left the car to pet it, but Weiss asked for her address so she had to let it go.

The driver pulled away, and Ruby watched the area blur past her. They pulled into Ruby's driveway, which was a lot like Blake's old one: set deep behind a treeline. The name "Taurus" was still painted in red on the door from whoever the last owner was. The house was small—three bedrooms, two baths, a tiny kitchen—but it was brick, and more importantly, Blake's by inheritance. Weiss didn't seem impressed, but Ruby thanked her for the ride and went in.

There was a note from Blake on the counter. It said, 'Out of town on business. Call Yang ASAP. Eat whatever you want. -Blake'. Ruby grabbed her cell phone, one of three shitty prepaids they all shared the cost of minutes for, and put in Yang's number. Yang picked up on the second ring, and the sounds of heavy machinery preceded her voice.

"Hey, Ruby! God, I was worried sick. I'm really sorry for forgetting about the ride situation, I—"

"Don't worry!" Ruby chirped. "I made a friend and she's going to give me rides home from school. And I don't think she's the type to miss. But in case she ever does, I'll make a few more friends to pick up the slack." Yang paused.

"Okay." Ruby pumped a fist. Sisters were much cooler about things like this than dads.

"Talk to you later, Yang!"

"Yeah. Love you, lil sis." Yang always ended phone calls like that. She was worried that the last thing she ever said to a loved one would be, well, anything else. Ruby didn't share her anxiety, but she was never one to shy away from affection.

"I love you, too!" She hung up and went to the freezer. Lining it were frozen pizzas and about ten Hungry Man frozen dinners. "Aw, yes!" she said, and reached for a box.


	2. The First Friday

Weiss was as good as her word. She stayed after school every single day: anime club and chess club on alternating Tuesdays, book club and fencing on Wednesdays, and FBLA on Thursdays. Friday morning saw Ruby half-dragged out of bed by a grinning Blake.

"Come on, Ruby, wake up. Yang's making breakfast." Ruby slurred a few words that her sleep-addled brain was sure were eloquent and sleepily made up her bed. Her outfit for the day was laid out on her comforter, already ironed and ready to be worn, so all she had to do was stumble into the shower and let the excellent water pressure do the job of waking her up. By the time Ruby ran into the kitchen, Yang had already washed the dishes and an egg sandwich was waiting for Ruby on the counter, wrapped in a paper towel as a clear sign that today's strategy was "grab-n-go".

Ruby took the sandwich and grabbed her bookbag on her way out of the door, making sure to get her key off the hook as she went. Yang was waiting in her car, and Ruby tossed her bag in the backseat before getting in, strapping in, and digging into her sandwich as Yang pulled out of the driveway.

"Morning, squirt," Yang said as they pulled onto the road. "You look beat. Sleep well last night?" Ruby mumbled something through a mouthful of bread and egg, then took a second to chew and swallow. A little cup of orange juice was in the cupholder, so she took some of that, too.

"I slept okay," she said. "I'm just...it's been kind of a hectic week, and I've got a quiz this morning, fencing practice after school, and then whatever else Weiss does on Fridays. I'm about ready to give up the ghost." Yang kept her eyes on the road, but glanced over at Ruby tentatively.

"Hey, this is your first week. You might want to ease up on yourself. You're across the country from where you grew up, in a new school. You don't want to burn out." Ruby nodded, but she knew that without Weiss giving her rides, she'd have to walk home, which was even worse. This was her only option without inconveniencing everyone else.

That said, everyone seemed to be noticing the strain. While she still didn't start conversations with Ruby on her own, Weiss noticed in first period when Ruby slumped into her desk without speaking, and for a brief moment entertained something that looked like concern before she went back to her notes. A few teachers even took Ruby aside and asked if she was alright; Ruby made a snap decision to invest in coffee before the weekend was out.

At fencing practice, Sage was pushing Ruby more than she'd ever been pushed. She was good, and they all knew it, but as varsity captain Sage was a lot better, and more often than not when he wasn't with varsity he would float around JV watching them practice, and land on Ruby. Sage never went easy on her, pushing her to use skills she didn't have to bother with on other JV members.

"Your circle parry needs work," he said, after scoring a touch on her for the tenth time. "You pull it back in too soon. When I thrust on the outside edge of the circle your epeé should be inscribing, it isn't there to move mine away. This is the kind of thing you have to be prepared for." Ruby held down the complaint that her circle parry was wide enough for everyone else and went back to en garde, but Sage walked away. Jaune, one of the sophomores, came up to replace him.

"Hey, don't worry about Sage," he said, putting his helmet on. "I was here two years ago as part of the middle school bridge program, and he's not half as bad as Winter used to be."

"Who's Winter?" Ruby asked. "People keep bringing up that name, even though she hasn't been here in like, two years." Jaune shook his head, and even through the helmet Ruby knew he was smiling.

"Weiss's older sister. We used to call her the Ice Queen. You could spend five minutes trying to score on her and she wouldn't even move. Like a glacier. She wasn't the type to brag, either, she'd just embarrass you, give you a lecture on why you suck, and go on to the next person. She graduated, and we haven't won regionals since." Jaune sighed. "Between you and me, I'm pretty sure Weiss is only hanging out with you because she wants to live up to Winter." Sage started wandering over near where they were talking, and the two of them quickly began a bout.

After practice, Ruby and Weiss walked to Weiss's car, but after a few minutes Ruby realized that they were not going to her house.

"Um, Weiss?"

"Yes?"

"Where are we going right now?" Weiss blinked, and then started.

"Oh! I forgot to mention—after practice on Fridays, I do concessions for the marching band at football games. I volunteer, but they'll pay you if you ask." Ruby felt all the energy in her body go right into the ground. But when they arrived at the stadium, she found herself caught up in the energy of things.

Band moms with serious faces told Ruby and Weiss to jump, and for the first time Ruby saw a side of Weiss that just said "how high". Weiss moved bags of ice, cases of soda and Gatorade, and even cooking equipment for hot dogs and other grill foods without complaint or sarcasm. Ruby even caught her sneaking a Dasani to one of the younger kids who got heat exhaustion but didn't want to tell the adults.

Ruby ended up being put on drink detail, carrying a box full of cold Coca-Cola products into the stands. She didn't see Weiss for a few hours, just because she was running between the stands and the concession area, filling and refilling her box. Every time she sold out, she got five dollars; by halftime she had almost sixty. But her arms were turning to rubber, and her legs were burning from going up and down stairs. She could feel sweat where the straps that held the box to her shoulders pressed into her skin.

When she got back to the concession stand for another refill, one of the band moms took one look at her and told her she was done. She tossed Ruby a Gatorade and told her to sit down somewhere, and after that, to go home. Ruby wandered around, watching the game from the side of her vision, until she caught sight of Weiss, sagging against a wall and trying to catch her breath.

As Ruby watched, a boy in the other school's colors walked up to Weiss and started talking to her. At first it seemed polite enough, but once Weiss seemingly dismissed him the boy got in her face. By the time he was reaching out to grab her or worse, Ruby was already on her way over, twisting the cap back onto her Gatorade and dropping it on the ground. She peeled the boy's fingers off of Weiss' arm and twisted his wrist until he cried out.

"Hey, Weiss!" she said, taking a moment to put him in an arm lock as well. "You okay?" Weiss was staring at Ruby, who was smiling cheerfully and completely ignoring the boy's whimpers and cries for mercy. "Because if you're not okay..." Ruby applied a little more pressure, and the boy at her feet hit a high note.

"No, no, I'm fine! You can let him go," Weiss said, still breathing hard. Ruby released the boy, who fell on the ground and rubbed at his arm and wrist.

"God, I was just talking to her!" he said, plaintive. Ruby turned to look at him, and her easy smile disappeared.

"Get lost," she said, and he scurried away. Ruby turned back to Weiss, a little sheepish. "Sorry about that, I get...worried. About people. You know." Weiss was still staring at her, with something strange in her eyes. Underneath the glare of the lights, Weiss' eyes almost looked wet, like she was going to cry any moment. But the look passed, and Weiss shook her head.

"Thanks. You're going to have to tell me sometime where you learned...that." Ruby picked up her Gatorade and handed it to Weiss.

"Here. Got you some electrolytes." Weiss rolled her eyes, but she drank the rest greedily, licking her lips when the bottle was empty. She must have been so dehydrated—Ruby was doubly grateful that she'd shown up when she had. "Mrs. Maceli told me to go home, by the way."

"Yeah, me too," Weiss said. "But I'm really hungry. Do you mind if we stop somewhere and eat? My treat, of course." Ruby shrugged.

"I mean, I am always down for food I don't have to pay for, but what's even open this late?" It was almost ten o'clock, and outside the lights of the stadium dark had fallen a long time ago. Weiss didn't even seem disturbed by the question, though.

"Waffle House is the traditional late night cuisine here," Weiss said. Ruby opened her mouth, then closed it.

"Uh...what's Waffle House?"

"Oh my sovereign God. You are not a true Southerner until you've been to Waffle House. Come, Ruby, we have business to attend to."

* * *

Waffle House turned out to be a restaurant full of very strange people. Ruby counted a preacher, a bunch of teenagers in varying stages of inebriation, and a few off-duty policemen.

"I'd like my hash browns smothered, covered, and chopped," Weiss said, concluding her order. All this was a foreign language to Ruby, who'd just ordered a waffle and some bacon. But when the food came it was actually delicious, considering that, judging from her brief peek at the kitchen behind the counter, every dish was cooked in a pound of grease. She drowned her waffle in butter and syrup and dug in while Weiss, slightly disgusted, cut her hash browns with a fork and knife.

"Pretty good," Ruby said, when the eating was done and they were sipping at their Cokes. "I guess Georgia has a few things going for it." Weiss smiled a little at that, but her face took on a more curious bent.

"So what was that? Back there, with the...stuff." Weiss made a few karate chop motions with her hands.

"Oh! That's Krav Maga. Not to brag or anything, but I kind of have the world's coolest cool uncle, and he taught me a bunch of stuff. That's one of them. Fencing, too!" Ruby looked up at the ceiling. "Haven't seen him in a few years though. He's definitely the 'show up and disappear mysteriously' type. Yeah," she concluded. Although Weiss was fascinated, it was pretty clear to her that the conversation on Ruby's uncle was over.

"Speaking of fencing," she started, "your first match is tomorrow, right? How do you feel? Confident in your skills, or nervous about the oncoming battle?" Ruby shrugged.

"It's just a sport, though. I mean, I want to win, but I don't put that much thought into it. Stresses me out less that way." A loud slurping came from Ruby's glass; her Coke was done. "I should really be getting home...Yang's probably worried." Weiss nodded, and went to the register to pay while Ruby picked at the last bits of waffle from Weiss's plate. Then they went to the Escalade together and got in.

The drive to Ruby's house was quiet. They'd spent too much time together to have much more left to say, and both girls were dead tired. Ruby mumbled a "good night" to Weiss and walked over to her door, the Escalade's headlights illuminating her way. She put her key to the door and stopped dead.

She hadn't noticed it before, but there was a little carving in the door right above the knob, so tiny that the knob would cover it unless you were right above it and looking straight down. The carving was a tiny bull's head, with two little horns to the side of it. It was less than a centimeter across.

Ruby realized Weiss's driver was still watching to make sure she got in okay and opened the door to go inside. "Taurus" painted on the door, a bull's head...this house had so much going on. Ruby wondered, not for the first time, who had owned this house before Blake, and what kind of weirdo they must have been.

She found a note on the kitchen counter, this one written by Yang, telling her that she and Blake would be out late on a date, since tomorrow was Yang's day off. Since it was almost eleven, Ruby revised her estimation of "late" to "two in the morning", which gave her plenty of time to scour the house for more weird bull stuff.

She found a few more carved bull heads. They were all in a line, roughly, on the main hall which lead to the back room where Ruby slept. Her bed was tempting, but Ruby's curiosity had reached a fever pitch. What did all this stuff mean? And how come Blake hadn't mentioned that the person she knew with a house in Georgia was a total kook?

Ruby didn't find any bulls in her room, but by that point in the search she was so sleepy that she couldn't have found her hands if she was covering her eyes with them. She undressed, not even bothering to put on pajamas, and flopped onto her bed, asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Beneath the house, something was waking up.


	3. Beacon at Atlas

The bus to Atlas Academy was a muted but cheerful affair. Everyone sat two or three to a seat with their closest friends, except Jaune, who was sitting with some red-haired girl Ruby didn't remember ever seeing at practice. Weiss and Ruby had gotten on last of the team, and been left a pristine seat right next to the bus driver. Varsity all sat in the very back; Ruby had some vague sense that proximity to the back doors indicated seniority.

However, once Atlas was in sight, all conversation ceased. Beacon was an inviting brick campus, full of grass and old stone, but Atlas was all brushed steel and white stone that must have cost a fortune to keep so perfectly clean. Unlike Beacon, Atlas did not have pillars or porticoes, but it did have a white statue out front of a man in uniform holding a rifle. Ruby asked Weiss about it.

"Confederate soldier," Weiss said in bored tones. "Trust me, every statue south of the Mason-Dixon is a Confederate soldier." Ruby went back to playing Pokémon on her phone emulator, only to hear rhythmic clapping from the back of the bus. Soon, everyone was clapping, even Weiss. Sage's deep tenor rolled out from the back, joined by all his teammates:

 _And so we'll fight in the Beacon way,_

 _all anchors down!_

 _For in the end we know we'll wear the crown._

 _And if you don't know our spirit we just have to say_

 _that we will sweat, bleed and die 'till Beacon wins the day_

 _B.A.!_

Ruby clapped along, slightly off beat, but lip-synched the lyrics. Three weeks later she'd have memorized them. Cheering and full of team spirit, the Beacon Academy fencing team charged out of the bus, leaving the driver to park and wait for them. The team queued up in front of an adult, a fat man holding himself still and tall. Ruby leaned over to whisper in Weiss's ear, "Is that a Confederate soldier, too?"

"No, you dolt, that's Mr. Port," Weiss said. "Technically the head coach of the team, but he only shows up for meets because he's a... _poltroon_." Weiss said "poltroon" with such careful, venomous malice that Port turned to look at her for a moment, as if sensing that a force beyond his ken had just cursed his soul to a thousand years of unceasing torment in the flames of Hell. He gave a speech, but it was mostly for his own benefit. He turned things over to Sage and bumbled off somewhere.

"Okay guys! This is just an exhibition before the start of the official season. But I don't have to remind you that our stiffest competition every year is always from Atlas. We have to establish right now that we're going to dominate the fencing circuit this season. Split up by weapon and gender, please." There were a few minutes of shuffling while everyone got in their assigned places. Weiss, who generally specialized in foil, went to another line.

Sage went down the groups, putting people into three person teams. As a JV girl fencing epeé, Ruby was near the end of the queue, and she took the time to chat with Weiss, who was in the next group over, gripping her sports bag like it was the only thing keeping her upright.

"Hey, are you nervous or something?" Ruby asked. A white car drove past them, parking a few spaces down from where Beacon was assembled. On second glance, it was a much nicer car than any of the others in the lot. A stylish white BMW, in fact, with an engine whose growl seemed ready at any moment to become a roar. The personalized license plate read 'FRIGID1'. Weiss dropped her sports bag. "Weiss?"

"Oh my God, she's here," Weiss mumbled. "My hair is a mess, she's going to see me competing, I—"

"Weiss. Who?" Weiss pointed, and Ruby followed the trajectory of her finger to its target; namely, the woman coming out of the car. She had the posture and speed of a young power mom in a retail store. She was sharp in her movements, and possessed of a thin nose that brought her face to a point that was more severe than attractive. Ruby knew who she was the moment she stepped into the early autumn sunlight. It was the family resemblance.

"Winter," Weiss said, in a breath. More of the Beacon kids were noticing her now, and the buzz of excitement was building to a fever pitch. Winter strode over to Weiss—there was no word for it but 'stride', as even in heels Winter's gait was smooth and controlled. "Winter! How nice to see you! I'm glad you came all this way to support your old team." She did not say 'your little sister'. She knew Winter better than that.

"You misunderstand," Winter replied. "I am here as the assistant coach to the Atlas Generals. If you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way." Stunned, Weiss stepped to the side, and the entire JV girls' foil group parted to let Winter through. She vanished behind the tinted glass of Atlas's front doors.

Ruby wasn't really perturbed, but the knowledge that Winter had been personally coaching Beacon's greatest rivals spread through the team like wildfire. Sage, from the angry set of his jaw, was doing his best to ignore the news, while a few of the more histrionic athletes (Jaune) were a nanometer from crossing the line between talking and wailing. Sage got through the rest of them quickly, and the groups split.

Ruby was happy to be one of the three JV girls that got to fence epeé. Since a team was only three people and every school only got one team per gender, weapon, and level, spots on the team were never guaranteed. For JV girls' epeé, the team was Ruby, a girl named Nora who frankly belonged on saber, and a retiring sophomore named Velvet who Ruby had never actually seen speak. Nora, by comparison, didn't seem to be able to _stop_ talking.

"If you've never done this before, no worries, it's super easy! There'll be four schools here including us, each sending a max of twelve teams; three weapons times two genders times two levels! We fence nine bouts per match, and then if we win, go on to fence the other school who won in our category for the win. Yes, it takes forever. Don't worry if you didn't bring lunch, Ren's mom always brings a cooler full of extras. Actually, I'm pretty sure no one brings lunch now because we all know she's going to take care of it. I'm Nora, by the way, Nora Valkyrie. Me and Ren have been together—not _together_ together, ha ha, just together—for ages, his dad's homemade moon pies saved my life once, remind me to tell you the story." Ruby saw her life flash before her eyes. A whole day of this seemed insurmountable.

"Gotta run to the bathroom!" she said. "Nerves!" She bolted, ignoring the look of hurt betrayal on Velvet's face. She ignored the first bathroom she found and went past a few classrooms to find another, emptier one. She ducked inside, locked her stall, and pulled out her phone to text Yang.

 _Hey. Sorry I didn't wake you up before I left. I hate doing that_. Ruby paused. _Wish me luck!_

She played Pokémon for a few more minutes, until she really did need to go. She ran out into the hallway and tracked down opening ceremonies. Ruby felt incredibly uncomfortable slipping into a seat while some big official guy was talking about the noble sport and stuff. She waited until he dismissed them to go to their events, and then found Nora and Velvet in a corner, talking about splitting up to find her.

"Oh! There you are," Velvet said. She had a pronounced accent, but Ruby couldn't place it. "Come on, we're against Shade first." They went to their assigned room and found that all the preparations had already been made. Since their uniforms sensed touches electronically, the moderator of the bout only had to watch what was happening.

Watching her teammates fence, Ruby couldn't help but be a little skeptical. Nora wasn't bad, but she was so aggressive Ruby wondered why she wasn't playing football or rugby. Of her three bouts, she won one, and jumped up and down a few times in victory. As for Velvet, she was pretty decent, but Ruby noticed that all her best moves seemed to be copied from Sage or Weiss, not her own practiced ways. Velvet won two of her bouts.

Ruby was feeling nerves more than she expected to, but the moment she got on the strip everything else disappeared. Nothing the small gaggle of spectators said mattered to her in the slightest. Her vision narrowed to the body of her competitors, of which every part was an acceptable target, and when she heard "Allez!" she was always ready. She won all three of her bouts, carrying Beacon on to the finals.

They shook hands with the Shade team and went to the waiting room, where each school had a huge table on which to set up their things and watch television screens up around the room for updates. Technically they were still calculating individual scores for the match Ruby's team had just won, so their results weren't up yet, but the results for JV girls' saber were already up. Shade had defeated Haven, and Beacon had defeated Atlas in the first round. Ruby didn't know the saber team, so she walked over to the table to find out more about it.

Jaune was chatting up the unfamiliar redhead from the bus while another two girls ate bagged lunches that a friendly woman was passing out to arriving Beacon kids. Ruby plopped down next to Jaune.

"Hey, do you guys know about girls' saber?" Jaune looked up at the word 'saber'.

"Yeah! You should have seen Pyrrha. We lost to Atlas in saber, so I went to check out the girls and saw her just ruining lives, man! Turns out she's nationally ranked. Who'd have thought?" The redhead next to him was turning more red by the second.

"I'm Pyrrha, by the way. Pyrrha Nikos. It's nice to meet you, ah, what was your name again?" Pyrrha smiled nervously, and Ruby felt her heart melting. There was something wonderful about talented people who were genuinely kind.

"Ruby Rose!" Ruby said, shaking her hand. "Nice meeting you. I should go grab lunch, though..." She trailed off, and Pyrrha immediately apologized for keeping her. Ruby went of in search of food. She found it in the form of Nora, whose verbal assault of the woman handing out lunches could only have involved Ren and, by proxy, his lunch-packing mother.

"Have you seen Ren? I was hoping the two of us could eat lunch together, you know, like we do all the time at school and stuff. I was just texting him the other day saying we should hang out more, I feel like since we got to high school we aren't around each other as much as we used to be. What do you think?" Ruby cut in there.

"Excuse me, are you Ren's mom? I'd like a lunch, please." Mrs. Lie turned to her with a look of profound relief. That seemed to be a running theme. She handed Ruby a brown paper bag and a bottle of water from a cooler and made small talk for a few moments before Ruby saw Weiss and her teammates enter and bolted over there.

From a distance, Weiss looked exhausted. She was still a little shiny from sweat and her hair was a tangled mess, but from the easy grace of her walk Ruby knew she'd won her match. Distressed Weiss couldn't move like that. Ruby grabbed another lunch and water and speed-walked over to Weiss.

"Weiss! How did it go?" she asked. Weiss took the lunch and water gratefully and took a seat at the lunch table while her teammates split to find their own friends. After a long sip of water, she sighed and closed her eyes before speaking.

"We barely won. Being honest, I choked because I couldn't focus. Thinking too much about Winter." Ruby could see a rant coming on and knew there was nothing she could do to stop it. "I mean...Winter is brilliant at everything she does, but I don't understand the thought behind choosing to coach for Atlas! She spent five years on this team thinking of them as her rivals, and then just threw all that skill and experience on their side. I don't know what to think."

"Then don't," Ruby said.

"What?"

"Don't think about her. Winter's just an assistant coach, it's not like you have to go up against her on the strip. Why not just put her out of your mind until you can sit her down and talk to her?"

"She lives out of town in some weirdo place, so we don't usually talk," Weiss said, miserable. She took a bite out of the sandwich in her packed lunch. "Is it just me, or does this have a funny taste?"

"It's organic vegetarian bologna," Ruby said. "Actually, I'm pretty sure everything in this lunch is organic and vegetarian. Explains that green goop Ren snacks on after practice."

"How would you know what organic vegetarian bologna tastes like?" Weiss asked, being generally suspicious of any food not dipped in the fatty entrails of a hog or served with peanuts as a matter of Southern pride. Ruby made a face.

"My dad was a total health nut," she said. "I could tell you war stories about kale and dried cranberries that'd curl your cowlick." Ruby licked her finger and reached out to smooth the helmet-hair induced cowlick in question; Weiss flushed down to her toes, but didn't move away. "I kinda miss him."

"Is he...did he pass away?" Weiss struggled to be both polite and nosy.

"What? No! I just haven't seen him in a few months since my sister and I moved here." Ruby munched a kettle-fried, low-sodium potato chip.

"You moved without your dad?"

"Yup!" This seemed to be another dead trail, but Weiss pressed on. Ruby wasn't very forthcoming about her personal life, and despite herself Weiss was getting curious.

"What did you move for?" Ruby made a face.

"Long story."

"Lunch is two hours long," Weiss pressed. "We have time."

"He...uh. He and my sister had a fight and he kicked her out. I went with her." Weiss dropped her sandwich.

"How can you just leave if you don't like what your father does? Don't you need him to help support you, have a place to stay, food?" Ruby shook her head.

"Yang has a car, her girlfriend has a. Ah. I'm gonna shut up now," Ruby said.

"So your sister is...like..." Weiss's voice contained something Ruby hadn't been at all ready to hear: shock, verging on horror.

"I'm done talking about this, Weiss." Ruby started putting her trash back into the paper bag to throw away, not looking up from the table.

"Wait, are you..." Ruby slammed her empty water bottle into the lunch bag, and Weiss nearly jumped out of her skin.

"I said I'm done!" People looked up at her, as she'd almost shouted the last part. Ruby got up and walked away, red in the face and on the verge of crying.

When they'd arrived in Georgia, Yang had said that some people were less accepting of gay people here than they'd been back home, but for the person who was her only real friend to react with horror to her own sister and sister-in-law was more than she was ready to handle. She called Yang before she knew what she was doing.

"Hey, Ruby? What's up, aren't you at that fencing thing?" Yang sounded sleepy, which made sense. On her off days Yang was almost always sleeping.

"C-can you come pick me up?" Ruby said, trying to hold her voice steady, but Yang picked up on it instantly.

"Sweet fuck, are you crying? I'll be there ASAP, just tell me where to go so I can put it in my GPS." Ruby gave Yang the name of the school and walked outside with her bag. While she was out there, she noticed a little black cat in the bushes and despite herself moved toward it, but after staring at her for several seconds it bolted out of the parking lot. Yang arrived a few minutes later, and Ruby threw her bag in the trunk before getting in the passenger's seat.

"Hey, Yang," she said, trying and failing to sound less miserable. Yang reached out and squeezed Ruby's shoulder.

"No worries, Ruby. I wasn't busy, and we can stop at a corner store and pick up some ice cream. Just chill for the rest of the day. Sound good?" Ruby nodded and leaned back against the seat. Being away from the pressure of competition and social interaction was already making her feel a bit better. But she still got herself a carton of Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream when they stopped at the corner store nearest their house.

When they got home, Blake was sweating on the front porch.

"What happened to you?" Yang asked, unlocking the door.

"Went for a jog," Blake said, which was strange considering that she was wearing a fashion collar and hadn't exercised once in the last few months. Yang just shook her head and went inside with Ruby at her heels.

While Blake showered, Ruby and Yang sat down in the living room and put on _Rocky_ while they ate their ice cream. It turned into a marathon of the entire series, which Blake and her favorite blanket joined halfway through the first movie, and ended with Ruby asleep on the couch, her tears all but forgotten.


	4. Interlude 1: Little Red and the Hunter

Ruby woke up hanging off her bed at an invertebrate angle. She clenched her abs and swung her body upright, then wiped at her eyes and looked around. Sunday mornings weren't usually this quiet. Toeing on her slippers, she went into the hallway to investigate. When no sounds of breakfast cooking or weird stuff from Yang and Blake's room announced themselves, she went to brush her teeth and wash her face.

There were plenty of reasons Blake and Yang might both be gone. Yang worked Sundays, for one, and Blake often drove Yang to work and then took her car somewhere for some sort of online business thing she ran. If she felt alone, Ruby could have sent Weiss an invitation to hang out via their school email addresses, but thinking about Weiss reminded Ruby of how she'd freaked out and ditched fencing, which in turn made her want to bash her head into the mirror. So no Weiss. Either way, Ruby was going to have the run of the house today.

She wandered into the kitchen and put some egg whites on a skillet. Yang hadn't bought a toaster yet, so her usual staple, the toaster strudel, was unavailable. Ruby resigned herself to protein and pulled out some bacon as well. She finished off her breakfast with a green plastic cup half-filled with chocolate milk.

"I'm tasting some...whole milk, perhaps with syrup mixed in? The fats are really enriching the palate, just marvelous," Ruby said to herself, adopting the affectations of Professor Port for her milk tasting. Then she collapsed into giggles. There weren't that many jokes funnier to her than the ones she told herself. She washed up her dishes and made her way back to her room still chuckling.

She threw herself onto her bedspread and stared at the wall. Nothing to do, nowhere to go. But something caught her eye. Carved into the top drawer of her nightstand was a tiny red bull. Sitting upright fast enough for blood to rush to her head, Ruby opened the drawer. Inside it, she found a red rotary phone. On the nine, she found another bull. The trail of bulls had lead her here, but what was she supposed to do with it?

She took a closer look at the bull carved into the drawer. It, too, had a tiny number inscribed within its borders. On a hunch, Ruby went all the way back to the front door, and found that every bull had a number inside, so small that she'd missed them the night before. Committing each one to memory, she put together a ten digit number beginning with 706, the local area code. It wasn't a far stretch from there to dial the number on the red rotary phone in her nightstand.

Deep from under the house, she heard something _thunk_ into place, like a hammer hitting a block of wood in a Rube Goldberg machine. Then the floor began to vibrate slightly, as if an engine beneath the hardwood had just come to life. Ruby watched in amazement as a hidden panel in the floor opened up on a tunnel that went straight down. Red lights set into the side of the shaft lit the way, glinting off the coppery rungs of a ladder. As far as she was concerned, there was no choice. Ruby swung her legs into the pit and began crawling her way down.

The air inside the dark was dry and warm, not cool or damp as Ruby might have expected. As she descended, white and yellow lights shone along with the red, slowly acclimating Ruby to more and more light as she went underground. Finally, Ruby's foot jarred. She had expected to land on another rung, and instead hit hard stone. She let go of the ladder, turned around, and saw the laboratory.

"Sweet baby Jesus," Ruby said. "Blake has _got_ to see this."

* * *

Qrow turned on the faucet, wincing at the watercolor red stain his fingers had left on the already filthy public sink. He thrust his hands under the white stream and sang the Alphabet song; one of his previous jobs had been in nursing, and he was nothing if not hygienic. Once his hands were clean and white, the only red being that under the skin of his well-scrubbed knuckles, he pumped some foaming soap into his left hand, lathered up, and rinsed again.

His phone rang. Qrow's ringtone was "Mr. Roboto". He hummed the song while he dried his hands with rough brown paper towels, making sure to put all of his rings back on when he was finished before plucking his phone out of his pocket. His phone cost him ten dollars at a Dollar General, and he would throw it away and buy a new one after this call. Qrow's employers always knew his new number without being told.

"Is it finished, Qrow?" asked the voice on the other end. It was pleasant, and not particularly gendered, although he did detect a slightly feminine timbre in the cool enunciations. He decided he would call her Dorothy.

"You betcha," Qrow replied. He walked around to an open bathroom stall. All the others but this one were empty, as was the way of highway rest stops at this hour. In the only occupied stall, a young woman was pinned to the cheap tile wall with a sword. Her mouth was still open as it had been when Qrow had impaled her, her death-shriek captured. "You want me to cut off her ears and bring them to you?"

"That won't be necessary," Dorothy said. Qrow pulled the sword out, and the body of the woman began to smoke, then smolder. Presently flames erupted from the woman's nostrils and mouth, and she burned to ash in seconds. Qrow flushed the ashes down the toilet and went to wash his hands again. "That is actually not why I called you."

"Oh, yeah? What can I do for you, boss? I am nothing if not a convenient source of roadside assassination."

"This job is more investigative. The Spring Festival in upstate Georgia can wait a few more months for your...ah, intervention. I am more concerned with the middle regions of the state. With Oaksville." Qrow sighed impatiently.

"For the last god damned time," he said, "Adam is dead. Need I remind you that I was _there_?" The voice waited a few seconds after he stopped.

"Are you done?" Qrow sighed, which was as much as he could be expected to capitulate, so Dorothy pressed on. "We detected two and a half "heartbeats". One of them matched Adam's very closely. One was an unknown element. The last one, though, is uncomfortably close to yours. And they are all in the same house—Adam's house. So, Branwen, despite your assurances that your family was no danger to us, we see your own flesh and blood rubbing shoulders with a man we are to suppose that you killed with your own two hands. We are sending you to investigate. If you fail...don't fail." She hung up, and Qrow tossed the phone in the toilet.

He picked up his sword, and gave it a sharp look. The steel blade split into segments and folded into a cube with only the handle remaining in shape. Then he walked outside, got into his car, and set his GPS to Oaksville.


	5. Recoup

"Good morning, Beacon!" screeched the usual chipper voice from the intercom. "This weekend was great for our school, as our football team won their first game of the season! Also, our fencing teams represented us in an exhibition at Atlas!" Ruby lifted her head up as the announcement lady listed off all the teams that had won their matches; JV girls' epeé was not among them.

When Weiss had entered the classroom that morning, they'd looked at each other for a split second and then immediately looked away. When Ruby stole another glance at her, Weiss seemed a little too focused on the completed homework assignment she'd studiously put on top of her desk. That was fine by Ruby, who felt that Weiss ought to feel at least a little bad for the things she'd said and the way she'd said them.

But it had already occurred to Ruby that she'd still need a ride home after fencing practice, assuming she was still on the team. She and Weiss would have to be on speaking terms at least to make that happen. But as the day progressed and classes wore on, it became clear that after their talk on Saturday, neither of them was really ready to start a serious conversation. It was with a heavy heart that Ruby walked into fencing practice.

It was a subtle thing, but conversation went quiet for a moment when she entered the room. No one said anything to her at first—Sage made a speech about their performance at the exhibition before they broke to stretch, and didn't mention her at all. She felt a little ashamed at having expected to be talked about. But when people began to pair up, Sage came over to her before she could find a partner.

"Hey, Ruby. Can I talk to you for a second?" She followed him into a corner where they wouldn't be heard. "Do you know why I'm taking you aside right now?" He looked deep into her eyes, and Ruby felt shame bubbling up in her stomach.

"I guess it's because of Saturday."

"Right. Ruby, you're a great fencer, but you can't ever do that again. Girls' JV epeé needs you, for one thing, but also...Ruby, we didn't have anyone to replace you when you left. We didn't lose in your category, we were disqualified. If you had personal issues with Weiss, that didn't have to impact your performance for the whole team." Sage took a deep breath and plowed on.

"So I'll tell you flat out you're not going to be punished for this. But I will say, you made a lot of enemies Saturday. If this happens again, I can't guarantee there'll be a spot on the team for you when you decide to come back."

"I'm really sorry," Ruby murmured. She'd never been good with being scolded. "It won't happen again." Sage nodded once, then started to walk back toward everyone else. Ruby followed, and since everyone else was already paired up, Ruby and Sage faced each other. Every few bouts, Sage would give Ruby pointers. Eventually, he called it off, giving Ruby a strange look.

"We've got to talk about your form sometime, Ruby. You don't fence in a conventional way for epeé. For now though..." He clapped twice, and the team gathered up in front of him. "Good practice, guys. Hit the showers, and I'll see you Wednesday." Ruby took her stuff and got into the shower with the other girls.

Weiss always showered last, so Ruby did, too. There wasn't much point to waiting outside for twenty minutes waiting on Weiss. So Ruby slipped into the showers as soon as she saw Weiss going in, squirted some body wash into her hand, and got to lathering. Ruby surreptitiously watched Weiss bathing.

Weiss always showered like she was afraid of looking weird, with tiny scrubbing motions and as little bending as possible. She'd never gotten over locker room shyness. Ruby just shrugged and started scrubbing her armpits with the resigned air of a communal showering veteran.

Weiss swept her wet hair in front of her shoulders, and suddenly her entire back was clear to view. Ruby's eyes wandered despite themselves. Weiss had well-developed back muscles, which was pretty surprising considering her rich-girl attitude. But Ruby had to admit that Weiss had surprised Ruby in pretty much every way possible since that first glimpse in the Wal-Mart parking lot. They needed to talk.

"Hey, Weiss?" Ruby said. Weiss didn't respond. Ruby placed a hand gently on her own forehead. "Yeah, I'll save it for when we have clothes on." She finished up quickly and ran out to towel herself off and get dressed. Weiss did the same, and only when they had left the locker room entirely did they start talking.

"What did you want to ask me?" Weiss said, chewing her lip.

"Mostly when we could talk about Saturday," Ruby said. "I feel kinda bad about that whole thing, and..."

"Yeah," Weiss concluded. "Uh, anime club is at my house tomorrow, so you could ask your sister if you can stay over at my place for the rest of the afternoon? We could, uh, hang out, and chat or whatever. Girl talk." Ruby almost laughed. Weiss sounded like a character in a Disney Channel original movie. But she went along with it, and even though they lapsed into silence on the drive back to Ruby's house, the silence seemed more comfortable than awkward. They were on their way.

Ruby dumped her backpack on the ground as soon as she entered the house. She had homework, but all she wanted to do was take a nap. She tried to slide past the living room quietly.

"Nope!" came a voice from behind her. She whirled around to see Blake in the kitchen, eating a tuna sandwich. "Homework first, Ruby. You know the rules." Ruby spared a moment to despair of ever looking as good doing anything as Blake looked eating tuna, even in gym shorts and one of Yang's anime tank tops.

"Can I have a snack first?" Ruby asked. Blake waved at the tuna and went to pick up the book she'd been reading in the living room.

"Go nuts," she said. "Bread's in the freezer. But when you're done, I expect to see you studying. Yang'll have my ass if I let you slip while she's at work." Ruby stuck out her tongue, slapping a thick layer of tuna on her bread.

"Doesn't she already have your ass?" she asked, and ducked the pillow Blake threw at her from the couch. She inhaled the sandwich and put her dishes away, then went to get her bookbag with the air of a criminal being lead to the electric chair. All at once, she remembered another diversion.

"Blake! I have to show you something."

"Ruby, seriously, you've got to do your homework," Blake said. But this time Ruby knew she was onto something.

"No, Blake, come to my room. I'm serious, there's something really weird in there that I found looking around yesterday. Come look!" With a sigh, Blake heaved herself out of the couch and followed Ruby to the back room. Ruby showed her the rotary phone in her nightstand and dialed the number from the bull carvings, then grinned as Blake's jaw dropped. Ruby clambered down into the passage, and Blake followed her down. The lights came on, and illuminated the basement.

Ruby suspected strongly that the basement was larger than the house above it. Pipes from the kitchen and bathrooms came down from the ceiling at irregular intervals, and an incredible workspace had been built around them. Benches, tables, and desks were arranged around the room, and an ancient PC was humming to life in the corner. Against several walls were racks of weapons, from garden-variety guns to the strangest, a sword with a deep red blade attached to what looked like a battery pack.

Blake looked around and took a deep breath. Ruby spread her arms wide.

"Check this out! I found it the other day! What do you think?" Blake kept staring. Her eyes swept over the work tables littered with paper, the racks of guns, and finally came to rest with the crimson sword reflected in her yellow-brown eyes. "Blake?"

"Ruby, I don't think you should come down here anymore. It could be dangerous."

"But Blake—"

"Do not—!" Blake cut herself, off, but Ruby had already heard her voice, full of more growl than Ruby had ever heard. Blake exhaled a long time. "Please. We'll talk about it in the living room. But I'm getting out of here, and I want to see you coming up when I reach the top." Blake crawled up the ladder, and Ruby started after her, but something caught her eye: a small brown book, sitting on a stool. She grabbed it before she had time to think and tucked it into the waistband of her skirt, letting her shirt fall over the book's cover.

The climb up the ladder was a precarious hell of adjustment, shifting her legs and hips to keep the book from slipping. But when Blake saw her coming up, Blake turned and left the room, giving Ruby plenty of time to shove the book under her pillow before running into the living room.

Blake sat on the couch, legs crossed and arms tucked in towards her stomach. Ruby plopped down next to her. For a few minutes, Ruby sat in silence while Blake adjusted her position on the couch like a cat settling into its perch, peering around as she did. Ruby's patience snapped, though.

"Soooo. What were we gonna talk about?" she asked, leaning forward to look Blake in the face. "We've just been kinda sitting here." Blake sat back and huffed.

"It's just a long story," she said. "I guess...okay, the guy who owned this house before me was named Adam. Adam Taurus." Ruby nodded.

"Okay. Was he like, a friend of yours?"

"No," Blake said, then curled her fingers back and sighed. "Well. Something like that, once. You know how I'm into activism?"

"Yeah, total SJW material," Ruby chirped. "Didn't you try to start a divestment club back home?" Blake nodded, smiling.

"Well, Adam was an activist, too. We ran in the same circles online, so eventually we started chatting on IRC boards and stuff. I more or less grew up talking to him, and one year when I had enough money, I flew out to a city here in Georgia for a convention I knew he was going to be at and met up with him." Recognition flared to life and Ruby leaned back, making a small and satisfied hum.

"That was that summer a few years back when you went missing!" she said. "I remember that. But I thought it was just for the convention..." Blake nodded, grim.

"I...I was young, and he seemed to respect me so much. It's complicated and a lot of it is still really off-limits, but I was taken with him. So when he offered, I stayed. I cancelled my return ticket, moved in with him, and started doing work on the ground. And then I learned a lot of thing about Adam that I hadn't known on the internet. Like, the fact that he was way older than me. I had just started high school and he'd been out of college for a few years. And nothing was ever enough for him—not the protests, not the community, not me. He started getting into dangerous stuff, talking about hurting people. And some, ah, other stuff happened. I went back to Cali in October and tried to forget it had all happened, but I guess Adam's still following me from the grave." The room felt hollow when Blake stopped talking. Ruby hadn't even known Blake that well before they moved in together. She'd never have guessed that Blake had run away to be an activist.

"So you lived here before?" Ruby asked. Blake shook her head, topaz earrings twinkling.

"He lived in the same city the convention was in, upstate. This was one of his safe houses, I guess. He was kind of a, uh, doomsday prepper." Ruby blinked. What?

"That's why you saw all those guns and stuff. He was constantly waiting on the day when the world would go to shit, because then he'd have all these weapons and machines and stuff cached."

"O-kay," Ruby said after a moment. Blake pressed on, looking Ruby full in the face.

"Ruby, I don't want you going down to that basement anymore. The stuff in there could really hurt you. And, to be honest, thinking about Adam's inventions makes me feel unsafe. I don't want his stuff turned on under my feet while I sleep. I just can't, okay? Can you do that for me?"

"Sure, Blake!"

"Promise me." Blake took Ruby's hands in her own and kept looking her right in the eye. Blake's eyes were always a little unsettling, their yellow tone giving them an unearthly beauty. But now they seemed to glow, scrutinizing Ruby with an intensity she'd never felt. "Promise, Ruby."

"I—I promise. I won't go down there anymore." Blake sighed and closed her eyes, giving Ruby's hands a squeeze before letting go.

"Okay, thanks. That's really relieving, Ruby." Ruby couldn't help letting out a breath herself. It had been tense. "Now go do your algebra, squirt." Ruby groaned, out of excuses to procrastinate, and went to get her backpack from the front hall.


End file.
